Bushrangers cruise along to a comfortable win

Victoria came up with a professional display with both the bat and the ball as they outplayed the Royal Challengers in all departments of the game to cruise along to a comfortable 7-wicket win. Andrew McDonald dominated the proceedings with the ball as his 4-wicket haul reduced Bangalore to 127/6. Then, the Bushrangers swept past the target with ease, thanks to gritty knocks from Quiney and Hussey with able support from Blizzard and Hodge. McDonald was aptly named the Man of the Match as his 4 wicket haul never let Bangalore get back into the game.

First Innings: Bangalore entered the second stage of the tournament having to win all the games as they did not carry forward any points. The Royal Challengers took a hit with Kallis missing out due to a side-strain. However, the team, which was bolstered by the return of Dale Steyn and Manish Pandey, won the toss and opted to bat.

Manish Pandey, walking out to open the innings with Uthappa, got off to a blazing start, dealing in boundaries at a regular rate - just the kind of start the Challengers and Kumble would have expected. Uthappa then got into the act, scoring back to back boundaries off McKay. However, the pacer hit back by dismissing the right-hander in the same over.

Along came Andrew McDonald and he had the Bangalore Boys dancing to his tunes. Bowling his first over, he bagged the all-important wicket of Manish Pandey, pouching an easy catch off his own bowling. McDonald had just started and there was more to come. He struck again in his second over to dismiss Kohli for 6 and then got Ross Taylor out cheaply in his 3rd over. The wicket was playing indifferently when compared to the start of the game, as the spinners were deriving a lot of assistance and the seamers too were employing a lot of cutters and slower deliveries.

Following the spate of dismissals, Rahul Dravid and Mark Boucher tried to hold fort, attempting to put Bangalore in a better position. However, their efforts were thwarted when McDonald struck yet again, trapping Dravid leg before for 33 and thereby scalping his fourth wicket while reducing Bangalore to 99/5 at the end of the 16th over. Boucher was soon to follow, getting out to McKay, leaving the Challengers in shambles. Towards the end of the innings, B Akhil managed a couple of boundaries, helping Bangalore to 127/6, a position of some respectability. McDonald was the pick of the lot for Victoria as he finished off with figures of 4/21.

Second Innings: Chasing a manageable score, the Victorian openers had a quiet start before Quiney opened up to get some past the boundary ropes. While Hodge was playing a sedate innings, Quiney was managing to find the boundary at regular freguency. Having seen Quiney do all the damage, Hodge then stepped up to score some lusty blows, outscoring his opening partner. However, his knock came to an end when Akhil struck in the 7th over, bowling the right-hander out.

Despite Hodge's dismissal Bangalore failed to derive momentum as they struggled to contain the extras as well as Quiney's intelligent approach. Keeping the required runrate well under control, Quiney and Blizzard put Victoria in the driver's seat.

Dale Steyn finally managed to pick a wicket when he brought Quiney's sturdy innings to an end. Soon to follow was Blizzard, falling to van der Merwe in the 13th over, leaving Victoria at 97/3. However, the damage was already done as the pair had taken Victoria towards a comfortable position.

It was all over for Bangalore in a short while when David Hussey hammered Anil Kumble for three sixers in an over, taking the Bushrangers to a comfortable win.